This invention relates to an endoscope apparatus, and more specifically, to an endoscope apparatus capable of data transmission among an endoscope unit, a light source unit, and an optional unit.
An endoscope apparatus in which data are transmitted among an endoscope unit, a light source unit, and a camera unit to control several operations, such as air feed, water feed, suction, photographing, etc. has been conventionally developed. In this endoscope apparatus, the light source unit functions as a controlling station, while the endoscope unit and the camera unit serve as controlled stations. According to the conventional endoscope apparatus, it is a long time before the light source unit starts an address check for the control of a unit to be controlled. If the camera unit is attached to the eyepiece section of the endoscope unit while the light source unit is controlling only the endoscope unit, it takes a long time for the light source unit to perform an address check for the camera unit and recognize the connection of the camera unit before transmitting initial data to the camera unit. Thus, if an operator operates the camera unit before the initial data is transmitted thereto, the camera unit may suffer erroneous operation.